Leave Johnny Alone: Who Cares If Manziel Was Late For A Meeting?

Zach Berger

8:00 am, August 15th, 2014

In the latest edition of “Johnny Manziel Did Something Unsurprising And You Shouldn’t Be Surprised” (or alternatively “Why Does Everyone Care About Everything Johnny Manziel Does With His Life”), it has been reported that Mr. Football was late for a team meeting by a few minutes and was fined.

The story here isn’t that Manziel was slightly tardy for a team meeting. The story here is that there is a story at all. Of course Johnny Manziel was five minutes late for a meeting. I’d assume that 99.99% of football players are a couple minutes late for something involving their team at some point in their career.

All reports from Browns camp, whether it be from fellow players, coaches, or the media, leads me to believe that Manziel has shown nothing but great effort and teamwork as he looks to become the starter.

If his late-night partying habits and his tendency to possibly partake in activities that involve rolling up dollar bills in club bathrooms affected his play in camp, I’d be the first to give Johnny Football shit for being Johnny Football. But that hasn’t been the case. He’s actually managed to balance his social life and his professional life thus far.

So why is every media outlet ragging on Manziel for being three minutes late to a meeting when those same reports say that multiple rookies were late for the same meeting because they misread the schedule. It’s not like everybody was there on time and Manziel stumbled in an hour and a half later reeking of booze with his club attire still on from the night before.

I don’t like Johnny Manziel. I don’t plan on liking Johnny Manziel. But give the kid a damn break.